Blogging Broadway: A Week With Mamet, Sondheim, and Shakespeare

Haley Joel Osment and John Leguizamo in American Buffalo (Photo: Carol Rosegg)

In this edition of Blogging Broadway, we review the starry revival of American Buffalo, The Public Theater production of the new/old Stephen Sondheim musical Road Show, and a terrifically sexy and violent interpretation of Macbeth.

Read on, Macduff!

SHUFFLE OFF TO BUFFALO

Any Broadway theatergoer who lately has felt he needed a David Mamet fix should now be happy as a f*cking pig in sh*t, as the playwright himself might put it. Hard upon the opening of a revival of Speed-the-Plow (with Jeremy Piven, Raul Esparza, and Elisabeth Moss) comes a new production of another Mamet three-hander, American Buffalo, with its own starry cast: John Leguizamo as Teach, Cedric the Entertainer as Donny, and Haley Joel Osment as Bobby.

The play was first seen on Broadway in 1977, with Robert Duvall in the central role of Teach. Al Pacino, one of Duvall's co-stars in The Godfather, famously played the part in the 1983 Broadway revival and the 1996 movie version. Now Leguizamo makes Teach his own, reveling in the pungent dialogue of this dark comedy about three low-lifes whose inept plans for a heist get them nowhere.

In his one-man stage shows and in the film To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar, Leguizamo has demonstrated that he can play a woman better than some women. Then again, it's clear by now that he can play just about any sort of character brilliantly. So it's no surprise that, in American Buffalo, he's terrific as a snide, macho street punk.

As for his co-stars, they prove that the casting of film and television performers with little or no theater experience in Broadway shows is not always a terrible idea. Cedric the Entertainer, who made his name as a TV and movie comedian, gives such a firmly grounded, utterly natural performance as Donny that it's hard to believe he hasn't been acting in plays all his life. 

Perhaps even more impressive is Osment's fully-fleshed characterization of the pathetic junkie Bobby, given the fact that, according to his bio, this young star of such films as The Sixth Sense, Pay It Forward, and A.I. has no live performance experience whatsoever. Both Cedric and Osment are making their Broadway debuts in American Buffalo, and Broadway is richer for their presence.

In this play, as in many other Mamet works, it's essential that the direction be invisible. If the interaction of the characters doesn't seem completely spontaneous, all is lost. Fortunately, American Buffalo has been helmed by one of the best in the business: Robert Falls, who has guided the actors firmly without leaving an obvious, heavy-handed imprint on the production.

The action of the play unfolds in a junk shop — how's that for a metaphor? — and set (and costume) designer Santo Loquasto has provided an ultra-realistic one that's lit with appropriate dinginess by Brian MacDevitt. In sum, this production is as excellent as the play itself.

Alexander Gemignani and Michael Cerveris in Road Show (Photo: Joan Marcus)

THE MIZNER TECHNIQUE

After several previous incarnations that were presented in various venues under various titles, the Stephen Sondheim/John Weidman musical now known as Road Show has opened at The Public Theater in what is presumably its final version. This is a fine production of an intermittently wonderful but generally disappointing show, starring Michael Cerveris and Alexander Gemignani as the peripatetic Mizner brothers, Wilson and Addison.

Formerly titled Wise Guys, Gold, and Bounce, the show — now only about 95 minutes in length, and peformed with no intermission — sketches the lives of the historical Mizners. Separately or together, these colorful siblings became involved in numerous endeavors in the late 19th/early 20th century, including the Alaska Gold Rush. But they are best known for the development and promotion of Boca Raton, Florida through shady methods that ultimately led to bankruptcy. 

The problems with Road Show are numerous. First, the brothers' attitude towards each other in their youth isn't as clear as it should be, nor is their relationship with their mother, played by the lovely Alma Cuervo. Willy and Addy's early exploits are covered in such a whirlwind of song and dialogue that they barely register. In contrast, so much time is spent on the Boca Raton story — about a third of the show's length — that it starts to become tedious when it should have been fascinating. On the plus side, a subplot involving Addison's male lover, Hollis Bessemer, seems more well-fleshed-out than before, and that role is played with charm and skill by Claybourne Elder.

I saw Bounce a few years ago in Washington, D.C. The standout song from that edition of the show, "The Best Thing That Ever Has Happened," remains, but many others have been cut or replaced. While the final version of the score has a few brilliant passages, some of it is repetitious in a neo-minimalist style, and there are sections where Sondheim has set so many words (or syllables) to a measure that the performers struggle to get them all out. To my ears, the most effective musical sequence in Road Show comes right before the finale, when Addison and Wilson finally have a searing confrontation about their love-hate relationship.

John Doyle's direction of the show is, like the score, rather repetitious; for example, there must be 25 or 30 times during the proceedings when various characters, but usually Cerveris as Wilson, throw fistfuls of paper money into the air. (Okay, we get the point!) Jonathan Tunick's orchestrations and Mary-Mitchell Campbell's musical direction are as fine as one would expect from these estimable artists. As for the design elements: Doyle's set, which basically consists of a pile of trunks, suitcases, and furniture, is uninteresting. Anne Hould-Ward's costumes are witty and Jane Cox 's lighting is skillful, but Dan Moses Schreier's sound design is far too reliant upon annoying bursts of overamplification and other cheap effects.    

The opening number of Road Show is titled "Waste" — and that word, used as an adjective, could well be employed as a harsh yet not entirely unfair description of the whole enterprise. Though Sondheim and Weidman haven't totally wasted their time in creating, re-working, and re-re-working this show about the dark side of the American dream, many attendees are likely to feel that the quality of the final product doesn't justify the huge expenditure of talent and man hours. Let's hope the irreplaceable Sondheim will soon begin writing another musical that will turn out to be far more rewarding.

Isaac Woofter (center) and company in Macbeth (Photo: Scott Blunt)

You'll probably never find a sexier, more violent, or shorter production of Macbeth than the one that's now being mounted (there's an apt word!) by the Roust Theatre Company as an Actors' Equity showcase at Theatre 3, located at 311 West 43rd Street. The text of what is already Shakespeare's briefest play has been judiciously edited, and its more shocking elements are played-up to provide a breathtaking, intermissionless, 110-minute experience.

As soon as the three witches enter and we see that they are gorgeous, young women in provocative clothing rather than ugly, old hags, we know we're in for a hot-hot-hot performance of this always-gripping tragedy. In the scene of Macbeth's homecoming to his wife, the couple screw with gusto even as they deliver the Bard's lines. (She's on top, which is certainly appropriate for the character.)

You say you want more? Well, you've got it! Macbeth's second meeting with the witches takes place not in a cavern, as per the text, but in bed — and Malcolm has similar intercouse with the weird sisters in an intriguingly rethought version of the final scene. Throughout the performance, several of the company's hunky male actors appear with their shirts off, gratuitously or not. (The rehearsal photo above is misleading in that, alas, the particular scene depicted isn't played with the guys half-naked; but a fair amount of flesh is exposed elsewhere in the show, so if you attend, you won't be disappointed on that count.) Oh, and Lady M's sleepwalking scene is performed with her robe wide open. 

There's plenty of brutality to go along with the sex. One of the most graphic sequences occurs early on, when we are shown the bloody execution of the Thane of Cawdor — an occurrence that's referred to in the text but not usually seen onstage. Later, the murder of Lady Macduff is preceded by the poor woman's horrifically violent rape. But the important point about all this business is that none of it contradicts the tone and spirit of the play. In fact, it so well suits what Shakespeare wrote that I'm surprised this approach hasn't often been taken. (Or maybe it has, and I just missed those productions?)

All hail to super-talented director James Phillip Gates for pushing the envelope so boldly and effectively while avoiding vulgarity or camp. His gifted company of actors is headed by Trey Ziegler and Tracy Hostmyer, whose natural stage presence and middle-American accents make the Macbeths seem like a nice, normal couple destroyed by ambition rather than psychos from the outset. Duane Boutte's Macduff is notable for his exceptionally beautiful voice. Among the cast's other standouts — in terms of both talent and raw sex appeal — are Isaac Woofter (Malcolm), Tom Macy (Angus/Son of Macduff), and Michael Peterson (Captain/Seyton). 

This Macbeth was presumably worked up on a shoestring budget, yet there's much to admire in Casey Smith's set design, Travis Sawyer's lighting, and Heather Klar's cleverly contemporary costumes. Bravo also to fight director Ben Curns, who must have been kept very busy during rehearsals. For more on this production and the Roust Theatre Company, visit www.RoustTC.com.